Seasonal Pizza Recipe

Today we have a guest post from our friend Elana Iaciofano. She is the owner and operator of Zaza’s Perfect Pie, a mobile, artisanal pizza cooking school. She’s also a children’s book author and illustrator working on her first book, Zaza’s Perfect Pie, about a little girl’s love for pizza and her quest to make the perfect one. Now, here’s Elana!

As a culinary instructor that focuses on pizza, I want to be true to its Neapolitan origins (and mine!). However, as a believer in eating what’s in season, I focus my pizza recipes on just that – seasonal produce. This focus often draws some raised eyebrows from my students, but they indulge me and are usually pleasantly surprised by the resulting taste combinations.

It’s summer time here in the northeast of the U.S., so what’s in season is fruit. Specifically, berries (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries…) and stone fruit (peaches, nectarines, plums…).

I’m going to focus on the tiny blueberry, which packs a big taste punch in this Perfect Blueberry and Lemon Pie, combining sweet blueberries with tangy lemons (a color contrast is nice), some creamy mascarpone cheese and a bit of fresh thyme! Here’s the recipe.

 Ingredients:

This recipe makes 2 large pizza

2 pints fresh blueberries
2 lemons, thinly sliced
8 oz mascarpone cheese
2 tbsp fresh thyme
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
2 rounds of pizza dough (homemade or store bought)

Process:

Preheat your oven to 500°F/ 260°C. If you’re using a pizza stone, allow the stone to heat up for 30 minutes in the oven prior to baking on it.

Stretch out your dough on a pizza peel dusted with flour. If you don’t have a pizza peel, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and oil the paper with olive oil. Stretch your dough on top of the oiled parchment paper on the baking sheet.

Apply a thin layer of mascarpone cheese to the stretched out dough.

Add the lemon slices on top of the cheese, followed by the blueberries. Press the blueberries gently into the dough so they don’t slide around.

Sprinkle on some fresh thyme and a pinch of salt.

Drizzle about a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil on top.

Slide your pizza into the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes until the crust is golden brown. The blueberries will burst and turn….hey, wait a minute…purple!

They will be delicious, so don’t worry about it.

Slice, serve and eat!